Longmont city officials: Mall owner and Dillard's still talking

March 1 is the deadline for an agreement

By Scott RochatLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
03/01/2013 01:19:31 PM MST

Updated:
03/01/2013 03:11:08 PM MST

This artist's rendering shows what NewMark Merrill Mountain States is planning for the 75-acre Twin Peaks Mall property. The northern end of the property features a large, yet-unnamed anchor, while the Dillards can be seen in the center-left of the site. A newly constructed movie theater is on the east end.
(Courtesy NewMark Merrill Mountain States)

LONGMONT -- March 1 had been the deadline for Dillard's and the owners of Twin Peaks Mall to strike a deal on the mall's development. The day may end without one, but Longmont officials say the talks are still moving forward and that the city doesn't want to cut off the discussion.

"You don't want to arbitrarily say 'Here it is' when both parties are still communicating," city manager Harold Dominguez said. "They're still talking. There's not a point where they're so far apart that the discussions have ended."

The Longmont City Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in a closed-door executive session to be updated by city officials on the latest negotiations with both Dillard's and the Regal Entertainment Group, owner of United Artists Theatre. The meeting will be in the study session room of the civic center, 350 Kimbark St.

The mall's owner, NewMark Merrill Mountain States, has said it needs agreements by April 1 with both Dillard's and with Regal, or else the mall's redevelopment could be pushed back a year. Unlike the rest of the mall's businesses, Dillard's owns its own building and land, while Regal's lease gives it the exclusive right to operate a theater on the site.

A timeline presented to the city council in February set a March 1 date for Dillard's and NewMark Merrill to reach an agreement. The Regal lease was to be finalized by March 15.

"We do feel good about the negotiations and where we're at," external assistant city manager Shawn Lewis said, referring to both tenants.

On March 19, Twin Peaks will be back at the center of the City Council's agenda. If agreements have not been reached by then, the council will have to decide what to do next -- including whether to reach for the last-resort hammer of eminent domain.

Right now, Dominguez said, the city's not going to make any rash moves.

"There are no imminent decisions," he said. "The parties are talking and they're communicating with us."

Allen Ginsborg, the managing director of NMMS, said talks with Dillard's had been cordial with "a lot of back and forth, but that's how negotiations go, don't they?"

Dillard's declined to comment on the talks while they were still in progress.

If the agreements go forward, NewMark Merrill plans to demolish the entire mall except for Dillard's, which will be a stand-alone building on the 75 acre property. The new open-air mall would include the movie theater, smaller mini-anchors near and to the south of Dillard's and a plaza on the center-west section of the site surrounded by smaller shops and restaurants

The city is contributing $27.5 million of the estimated $80 million redevelopment project; the city's bonds will be repaid by the additional sales and property tax the mall generates and by a mill levy the mall will place on itself. An agreement between Longmont and NewMark Merrill sets several benchmarks before any city money is released; under that agreement, the project must be at least 85 percent finished by the end of 2015.